JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS
Year:2006 | Volume:4 | Issue:14|Papers Count:8

Educating the graduates with cognitive potentials and emotional tendencies for research and innovation has been the ideal for all the education systems throughout the world. It has been also considered a necessity and a national will for our country (Iran). There is no doubt that this important goal should become a reality by the most fundamental element of education i.e. The Teacher.The aim of the present research is investigating the effectiveness of teaching by the problem solving method. It is also to evaluate establishment and rising of research moral among the school students based on the research indexes. A pilot project took place consisting of two test groups and one control group. We selected a total of 68 students from two schools in Tehran (Iran). The students were from three classes in fourth grade. The education year was of 2005-2006.The three independent variables were randomly applied on the mentioned population in the science and geography courses. These variables were: a) teaching by problem solving method along with the evaluation based on research indexes, b) teaching by problem solving method without the evaluation based on research indexes, and c) teaching based on traditional method.Research moral, as the dependent variable, was evaluated on the three indexes of A) attitude toward research, B) the pupils’ performance in the examinations containing the questions about researching issues, and C) research oriented class activities. The obtained results showed that teaching by problem solving with/without the evaluation based on research indexes is more efficient than teaching by the traditional method. This was with the probability of 0.99. We found, there was no significant difference between the teaching with the evaluation based on research indexes and teaching without the evaluation based on research indexes. This similarity was in terms of their efficiency in raising research moral among the research population.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of problem solving training on self-esteem of 12 to 13 year old adolescent students with communicational behavioral problems (in the Middle school period). The tools used in this research were Cooper Smith’s self-esteem test and Rutter’s questionnaire on behavioral problems. Therefore 48 students who had lower than average scores on Cooper – Smith Self-Esteem Scale and a higher than 9 or equal to 9 score in Rutter’s behavioral Scale were randomly selected from among 68 students and were assigned to two problem solving training and control groups. The training group received problem solving training for 7 weeks and each week for one and a half hour while thte control group received no such training. The results of Analysis of covariance showed that after controlling for other variables there was a significant difference between the average of self-esteem scores of the training and control groups (P=0). The difference between the average for boys and girls was not significant. Nor was the interaction effect of training and gender on self-esteem.

The aim of this investigation has been to explore not only the educational needs of the students and their parents in various dimensions but also to take advantage of the opinions of counselors and teachers regarding family education on this issue. The study is an applied and descriptive type of survey and from the study method perspective has employed a synthetic need assessment model. Sampling population consisted of the students and their parents of Iranian secondary schools and counselors and teachers of family education in academic year (the Iranian solar years 1381-1382 or 2002-2003). Sample of investigation consisted of 4432 persons (1302 mothers, 1384 fathers, 1419 students, and 327 counselors and teachers). These individuals were selected through compound sampling (purposive, simple random and cluster sampling) from provinces of East Azerbaijan, Tehran, Khozestan, Sistan & Balochestan, Fars, Lorestan, Kordestan, and Golestan and Gilan. Three researcher-built inventories have been utilized for data collection that consisted of: 1) Student Inventory, 2) Parents Inventory, 3) Counselors and Teachers Inventory. The questionnaire was built based on the development theories and experts’ opinions in this field and has had considerable validity and reliability. The research data analysis was done with the help of descriptive statistic, including various distribution tables, mean and standard deviation as well as inferential one-sample t test, t test for comparing the difference of means, F test, and chi-square test. The results consisted of the following: 1) the parents’ educational priorities needs were different in sub-cultures. 2) The mothers’ and fathers’ educational needs have a lot of similarity. 3) The issues of warm and sincere relationship among the family members, the necessity of going to school, parents’ trust in the adolescents, girls and boys familiarity with each other before marriage, and issues of the same sort have special importance. 4) Overtly significant differences were observed between the needs of students and those of their parents. 5) the most important parents’ educational needs for their children were distinguished in somatic, hygienic, social, psychological, academic and moral-religious dimensions.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between learning styles, self-efficacy beliefs and academic fields in high school students. In this research, we have been seeking to find whether there is significant relationship between the element of study field and learning style, between the elements of self-efficacy belief and field of study, and the elements of gender and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy consists of the beliefs a person has toward his abilities in order to organize the phenomenon to reach his desired state with suitable behavior and act (Mortazavi, 2005).Studies indicated that the amount of self-efficacy beliefs is differing based on the people’s age and gender. And self-efficacy belief increases with the increase in age in both genders and it is higher in men (Tuckman, and others 1987). Learning styles refer to beliefs and behaviors that people use to help them in learning in a specific situation (Hohen, 1999). The studies about learning styles have indicated that the various learning styles differ with gender, academic field and education level (Philibin and others 1995), (Hicksoen and Baltimore 1996). (Hhsseini Largani 1998), (Miransari 1999).The sample group in this study includes 399 female and male students that were selected form students of Boldaji schools in 2004-2005 academic years.In order to evaluate learning methods we administered Cob's learning style inventory (1985) and to evaluate self-efficacy beliefs, Bandore's self-efficacy beliefs inventory were used.The result indicates that the students of mathematics-physics field have the divergent learning style, the students of empirical sciences field have assimilate learning style, and students of human sciences field have accommodate learning style. The students of mathematics-physics field have the highest self-efficacy compared to others. Significance was not seen between learning methods and self-efficacy belief and female students are in a higher level compared to male students in self-efficacy beliefs.In order to increase self-efficacy we suggest the use of a successful student model, verbal persuasion, and mastery experiences and the providing of suitable conditions for gaining successful experience.

In the active and full of competition world of today, management of organizations is a complex and difficult task. Old approaches however, cannot be implied to solve today’s problems. Therefore “learning for the purpose of problem-solving” and “learning with the aim of expansion and development” have been added to their strategic policy. The pioneers know that by using pre-determined regularities they cannot achieve missions: they need the learning opportunities, by which they meet the urgent new demands. The study at hand examines the qualities of “organization learning” of Mashhad primary schools, middle school and high schools. By the survey method, 36 schools were randomly selected as the research sample (including 36 principals and 180 teachers). This sample was gathered using the multi-level clustered sampling method. Data was collected and analyzed by reliable question are, open interview, and planned observation. The findings show, based on Peter Senge disciplines, that there are significant differences between existing conditions with respect to the ability to learn in schools and the ideal conditions in Senge’s five fundamental principals. Furthermore, based on the main research variable, the difference in school years is significant. This is while there is no significance for the difference between education districts.

Today, metacognition is one of the most important factors in explaining student's achievement (Mevarech, 1999). Metacognition means one's awareness of his cognitive processes and the regulation of cognition (Flavell, 1985). To many theorists, mathematical achievement relates not only to base knowledge but also to metacognition. To study the effect of metacognitive instruction on mathematics achievement, 118 students (61 boys, 57 girls) from 4 classrooms of the second grade guidance school were selected. Two of these classrooms are randomly assigned to be the experimental groups and two to be control groups.During 4 weeks, experimental groups became engaged in doing mathematical tasks cooperatively in groups of 5 to 6. They used metacognitive strategies and discussed the reasons for their answers. They were also involved in self-monitoring and self-evaluation of their progress and abilities. Control groups were taught in traditional way. The results showed no significant difference between the previous grades of these groups. In the posttest, the experimental group's grades were significantly higher than the control ones. Besides, in the experimental groups, weak students attained significantly more benefit than good students. The findings have some implications for teacher education and in – service instruction.